Ferris Team Heading to National Rube Goldberg Competition at Purdue

A College of Engineering Technology team from Ferris State University will make its
ninth appearance in the national finals of the Rube Goldberg Machine Competition on
Saturday, March 31 at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind.

The university has a history of success in the Rube Goldberg competition, which rewards
creativity over simplicity. A Ferris team set the Guinness World Record in the 2007
“Toy Factory” competition by using 229 steps with a machine that squeezed juice from
an orange into a pitcher. The team beat its personal record in 2010 when it traveled
to Japan with an updated version of the 2007 machine. The group broke the record with
230 steps.

For this year’s task, the six-member team created a machine that takes several steps
to blow up a balloon and pop it. Its theme is “Back to the Future.”

“We are still working on steps, and I do not have a final count yet,” said Bryan Williams,
a senior majoring in Mechanical Engineering Technology from Lupton, Mich. “The theme
this year is the future; we decided it would be an interesting theme because technology
today is moving forward so fast, and Rube is kind of the opposite of that with everything
being over-complicated. It seemed like a cool idea to blend the two together.”

The competition honors Rube Goldberg, the late Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist known
for taking a simple task and making it extraordinarily complicated.

“This is such a great experience for students,” said Ferris Rube Goldberg team advisor
Thomas Hollen, who also is coordinator for the university’s Energy Systems Engineering
and Mechanical Engineering Technology programs. He serves as chairperson of the RGMC
regional and national high school events. “It’s an opportunity to compete with your
mind. Any time I see students use their minds to create, I love it.”

Ferris landed an automatic berth in the national competition. It was the lone collegiate
team to compete in the Feb. 18 high school and college regionals held at Ferris’ Wink
Arena.

This year’s competition marks the fourth time Williams has participated on Ferris’
Rube Goldberg team.

“I always look forward to nationals,” he said. “I enjoy seeing the other teams’ creations,
and that helps inspire me for my own machine.”

However, Williams’ favorite part of the Rube Goldberg competition is watching younger
students in the high school division compete.

“When I see the high school machines, I imagine them going to college and getting
an engineering degree and getting a job on the front line of new technology innovation,”
he said. “This competition teaches kids to think outside of the box and helps them
get interested in designing and building things.”

Kimberly High School in Kimberly, Wisc., defeated 12 other teams to win the national
finals held March 17 at the university’s Wink Arena.

The Ferris Rube Goldberg team also includes Ben Peltier, of Cadillac, Mich.; Tyler
Koroleski of Hudsonville, Mich.; Jennifer Kempel of West Branch, Mich.; and Adam Matz
of Cedar Springs, Mich., all Mechanical Engineering Technology majors, and Jory Smith
of Hemlock, Mich., who is studying Biology/Pre-Medicine.